Back around 1963 or '64 I bought a Model A roadster pickup that had been sitting outside forever. We aired up the tires and they all held air so we hooked it up to my friends 3/4 ton w/a tow bar and were towing it to his place about 25 miles away. About 1/2 way there the left rear wheel of the A decided to go AWOL. After pulling off to the side of the road we followed the track the wheel had made in the grass and retrieved the wheel with the attached hub. We found the axle key back on the road but no nut. Needing a nut I scrounged around and found that the nut holding the spare tire bracket to the frame was just what we needed. "liberated" that nut, put the wheel, axle key and nut back on the axle tightened it up, put a nail in to suffice for a cotter pin and we were back in business.
I figure that back in time, back on the farm, somebody had needed that nut for some other application so had just "borrowed" it.

I'm sure many stories could be told about that jack you're using! The brand we had on the farm was "Handyman". It was certainly handy, but dangerous! Notice the small base. If whatever you had jacked up moved a little, over it went. Often, when lowering the jack if your hand slipped off the handle it would start ratcheting down by itself. There was no grabbing the handle to stop it, you just let it go. Ours had a short handle with a slot for a wood extension 2 or 3 feet long. If it got to ratcheting, it would fling that wood handle a good distance. Dad drilled it into me to never get under anything supported only by that jack! Seeing the jack tip over and the self ratcheting thing made that an easy lesson to remember.

Back around 1963 or '64 I bought a Model A roadster pickup that had been sitting outside forever. We aired up the tires and they all held air so we hooked it up to my friends 3/4 ton w/a tow bar and were towing it to his place about 25 miles away. About 1/2 way there the left rear wheel of the A decided to go AWOL. After pulling off to the side of the road we followed the track the wheel had made in the grass and retrieved the wheel with the attached hub. We found the axle key back on the road but no nut. Needing a nut I scrounged around and found that the nut holding the spare tire bracket to the frame was just what we needed. "liberated" that nut, put the wheel, axle key and nut back on the axle tightened it up, put a nail in to suffice for a cotter pin and we were back in business.
I figure that back in time, back on the farm, somebody had needed that nut for some other application so had just "borrowed" it.

hi Katy. It feels good to save something worthwhile from decay or demolition doesn't it. Looking at the photo where it is missing the wheel, it seems like the vehicle was in good condition, that is the restoration wasn't that difficult. I take it the vehicle is not the green closed cab one on your home page.
My wife is older than I and she says I married her because I like old things. eg. Al Jolson is one of my favourite vocalists.

today I have a funny and a story will follow. here goes, it is from a newspaper many moons ago and I kept it because I thought it difficult to believe at the time until this very unusual explanation was found by admission.

The cow that fell out of the sky and sunk a Japanese fishingboat.

In 1997, the crew of a Japanese fishing boatwas pulled from the Sea of Japan after clinging to the boat's wreckage for several hours. They were immediately arrested, however, after authorities interrogated them about the boat's fate. To a man, they claimed a cow had fallen from the sky, apparently coming from nowhere, and struck the boat amidships, resulting in a huge hole and its rapid sinking.

The crew remained in prison for several weeks until Japanese authorities were contacted by several highly embarrassed Russianair force officials. It turned out that the crew of a Russian cargo plane had stolen a cow that wandered near their Siberian airfield and forced it onto their plane before they took off for a flight home. Once airborne, the cow apparently panicked and starting rampaging through the cargo hold, causing the crew also to panic because it was affecting the plane's stability. They solved the problem by shoving the cow out of the hold while crossing theSea of Japan at 30,000 feet.

Unfortunately, following Rules 5 (Look-out),and 7 (Risk of collision) won't keep you out of trouble when the danger isairborne!

Reprimand from Malaysian military base commanderI was to fly from Jendarata to a plantation airstrip near Ceni insouthern peninsula Malaysia. When I arrived it was necessary for me to go in person and speak with the commander of a military helicopter base nearby. How did you get there the man enquired. I flew outside controlled airspace (OCTA) I responded. He gave me a dressing down for not having lodged a flight plan. Very dangerous pilot I was. Could have had a midair if no one knew I was around. (Malaysian OCTA movements are about nil but I didn’t tell him that because he knew anyway.)It was only a few weeks later there was a midair. Two military helicopters, both on radio and right above the control tower. That is, in controlled airspace and in view of the controller.For the duration of my flying career all midair collisions have been CTA (controlled airspace) or pilots on radio. There is only one exception that I am aware of and that was in a cotton area in Northern NSW. It was a fatal and very sad especially for those of us in the ag business. Whilst the above was serious and sad there was a humorous comment made by the surviving pilot. His engine had been taken out and the hopper also The most forward part of the aeroplane was his feet.The windscreen was intact but that only kept the bugs off his face. As the aeroplane descended ground wards in a waffling manner the pilot said to himself,‘shit this is going to hurt’. It did indeed. He had many months off work. I have avoided several close calls by watching out however that doesn’t seem a fashionable thing to do by many pilots. Many of them believe they have discharged their obligation by making a call to “all traffic”. Not watching where you are going is a story by it’s self and I think I might write one.

While following a friend's '30 sedan one day, it suddenly started spewing a huge cloud of smoke. He pulled off to the side and we found the 1/8" pipe plug had come out of the block, the one by the oil pump, and was dumping oil on the exhaust. I found a zerk fitting on his front axle that had a small check-ball in the center, and screwed it into the block. We added a quart of oil and went on our merry way!

In 1993 I bought anAirtractor from David Baynes, a cotton sprayer in Wee Waa. It was registeredVH-DDT. David needed the capital to expand thus the sale. But he did want toretain the rego. It was unique. I agreed he could keep it and David changed theAirtractor rego to VH-DDH.

Unfortunately David did notreserve the rego and it was taken by an opportunist. A request was made forthis fellow to relinquish it. That was agreed provided David paid him some$5000. David was pretty sour.

In 1995 I sold my businessto Fieldair. That included VH-DDH.

It had been a favourite withDavid and he requested that he get first offer should Fieldair sell it. Theopportunity came and he went halves with Neville Dunn. Should he have left the originalrego he would have the rego VH-DDT back in his possession.

Unfortunately the plane wascrashed in West Australia. A couple of enterprising engineers then took 2wrecks and rebuilt to one. The rego DDH was dropped when the aeroplane wasrebuilt. Now both VH-DDT and VH-DDH wasrego and now was lost.

In 1993 I bought anAirtractor from David Baynes, a cotton sprayer in Wee Waa NSW. It was registered VH-DDT. David needed the capital to expand thus the sale. However he did want to retain the rego. It was unique. I agreed he could and David changed the Airtractor rego to VH-DDH.

Unfortunately David did not reserve the rego and it was taken by an opportunist. A request was made for this fellow to relinquish it. The fellow agreed provided David sent him some $5000. David was pretty sour.

In 1995 I sold my business to Fieldair. That included VH-DDH. It had been a favourite of David's and he requested that he get first offer should Fieldair sell it. The opportunity arose and he went halves with Neville Dunn. Should the rego remained VH-DDT David would have had it back in his possession.

Unfortunately the plane was crashed in West Australia. A couple of enterprising engineers then took 2wrecks and rebuilt to one. The rego DDH was dropped when the aeroplane was rebuilt. Now both VH-DDT and VH-DDH have gone. That is until David posts 5k AUD to the opportunists.

footnote. I paid David some 330,000 for that aeroplane and the new price was 420,000 if my memory is correct. It came, at the time, without GPS without a heater and without aircon. We were supposed to be tough.

I'm sure many stories could be told about that jack you're using! The brand we had on the farm was "Handyman".

The brand of jack I saw most often back then was "Jackall", that's one in the picture and I still have and use it occasionally

Quote:

hi Katy. It feels good to save something worthwhile from decay or demolition doesn't it. Looking at the photo where it is missing the wheel, it seems like the vehicle was in good condition, that is the restoration wasn't that difficult. I take it the vehicle is not the green closed cab one on your home page.

Hi Gary, back then I wasn't into Model A's although I had owned and driven a few back in the '50s (daily drivers). I had bought this one on a whim, I paid $15 for it, sold it for $150 and thought I was doing good. The fellow that bought it owned what was called a speed shop, I don't know what he did w/it, I suspect he hot-rodded it. I never saw it again.

Working withcloud.The lowest cloud I ever worked in was south of Jerilderie on the property of Stuart Rochford. Spreading urea. Visibility of one or two miles and very little wind. But the cloud was almost on the deck.I would turn over trees. Very low. Maybe the lower wing had about a 20 foot margin but part of the top wing was literally in the cloud. The job took a little over one hour. I payed strict attention to every thing. Didn’t blink.I was pleased when I finished and relaxed enroute home.Another unusual cloud / work job was at Binjor Plateau near Mundubbera Queensland. Spraying peanuts.The crop was grown to the edge of the plateau and cloud formed at that level because of rising air on the northern side. At the end of the run I had to quickly descend about 100 feet, do a 180 turn then climb and make minor adjustment to my track then continue to spray. I just loved working at Binjor. A tightly knitted farming community and they were fun and laughter and pranks.It is worth my saying that I used to fly in very low cloud near ground level. With high tension power wires one could fly under if it was that low. Vis had to be good.Today my attitude and practice has changed. Mobile phone towers have been erected all around the country and it would be certain death to continue the practise.I did get one surprise. Destination Bankstown NSW. Tuned nav radio into a radio broadcast station.. I did see it a couple of miles off but the surprise was I hadn’t expected it. It was 1500 feet high. I’ll tell you about fog in another story.Bankstown, mentioned above was, in the war renamed Yankstown for obvious reasons. There was local resentment to those Americans. They (Americans) were considerably better paid than the locals and with more cash to splash on the local girls plus nylons.The locals found fault with them. Said they were overpaid, oversexed and over here. Other than Bankstown Americans were well received and popular.Americans servicemen were also at my local town of Tocumwal. There are some funny stories told by my friend Johnny Haynes who was a kid at the time. Maybe I’ll tell themsome time.

Try this: In the lower left of the posting, click on “Post Reply”, then click on the paper clip icon (attachments) that is near the top, a small page comes up “Manage attachments”, click on “choose file”, select the file for the picture you want and then click “open”, the file name will appear next to the “choose file”, then click “upload”.

Money changes that. We all know Al Capone make his living by wetting people’s throats? Yes? It happens in every place throughout the world, Malaysia too.In Malaysia we purchased good beer, San Miguel and poor rum, Tanduay. Both Filipino. It always came in hessian bags and was quite cheap. The sand that came with it was complementary. How come you ask?Well it was a trade conducted by Filipino pirates. They buried it in the sand and our Filipino loader driver foreman was an intermediary. He formally had been a pirate.Our supply stopped for a while. The trade had been sprung. It wasn’t too long before the trade began again. It turns out the police had intercepted the liquor and now they became the retailers. The margin increased of course. We were still a profitable and reliable market. They, the police were expected to make up their own wages and they did that with great resource. I’ll tell you more about them in a later story.

Aeroplane walks overnight.In Malaysia we have a few crashes. Not Gary I am keen to add. Well there is many airframe and engine components to salvage. This may take several days to get engineers from Australia to the crash site and several days to strip the plane.Well the local Malays and /or their guest workers started to do this. Not for us but fortheir own inventory. Not all our components would be retrieved but we know who got some of it. The aeroplanes were all yellow. Yellow roofs would appear on nearby make shift houses. These were the aluminium skins off the wings and panels off the fuselageof course. Nothing was wasted. Resource fullittle fellows.

Circle work at Theodore.Barry Foster is an ag pilot of comparable vintage to myself. Some years back he was operating out of Theodore in Queensland, spraying cotton. His airstrip was in a bit of scrub near town and that’s the strip where this incident occurred. About sparrows in the morning Barry goes to work. He arrives at his strip and cranks the aeroplane. It takes time for engine to warm up so Barry climbs out to wait. However climbing out he inadvertently kicks open the throttle and she bursts into what’s nearly full power. Barry is blown over then the left side break lets go. Aeroplane is going around in circles. The kids do this in their motor cars and they call it “circle work”.Barry has to close the throttle but his endeavours fail. He just can’t get to it. Around and around it goes. Wourh, wourh, wourh wourh she goes, around and around and around and around etc etc etc. The towns folk are awakened. The police arrive. The ambulance arrives. Town folk arrive. Every man and his dog was there. Quite a sensation and spectacle Barry has created.Eventually Barry got control. It ran out of gas. One hour and twenty minutes after Barry hadcranked it.Isn't it great there are still some oldies like me otherwise these good tales would be forgotten.

Model Atractor.Did you know there was a model A tractor?Yes, produced by Harry Ferguson and David Brown. The two are still names of tractors today.Henry Ford produced the Ferguson TE20 tractor under licence. Infact he made some 441 thousand of them. They are virtually the same as we have here in Australia except the front grill and the throttle.The Ford -Ferguson agreement was widely known as the handshake agreement. This amicable deal didn’t end the same way. It was acrimony. Ferguson claimed patents had been stolen and sort a settlement of 251mil USD. Settlement was reached following a lengthy and expensive legal battle. 9.25mil USD. The most expensive litigation case in history. Another lawyers field day, they never miss out do they. And Fergusonwent on to manufacture more than half a million “little grey fergies”. I had one and used it to tow my aeroplanes with. Today my son Dennis has it to tow his aeroplane.History has it. In 1936 the Ferguson-David Brown tractor, the Model A, was introduced.“The Little Grey Fergie” was manufactured from 1946 to 1956. Half a million of them. Ferguson went public and later bought out by Textron, who also are manufacturers of Bell Helicopters, Cessna and Beechcraft aeroplanes.David Brown manufactured the “valueless motor car”. Quite a silly name isn’t it. In 1908, the front resembled a T and the passenger compartments resembled an A. (The Model T was introduced in 1908 also). And for a period 1947 to ’72 the Aston Martin. James Bond drove one. Remember the baddie getting ejected from the passenger seat?ADCO boughtout David Brown and now it is owned by a German company and I believe still manufactured in Canada under the brand name of Massey Ferguson.Internetpage to Ferguson-Brown Model A tractor.http://tractors.wikia.com/wiki/Ferguson-BrownAnd to speakof odd names. Alldays and Onions, motor car. Named after the founders of the company that built the car. If you don’t believe me just look it up on the internet.

Engine failure at Nagambie.Years ago I was flying a 400hp Fletcher. This aeroplane was designed by a bloke named Thorpe. It was a upgrade from a military machine. Today the Fletcher is still a manufactured and productive machine in New Zealand. Today a small variant is a home made very light plane for enthusiasts. One afternoonI felt it surging. Not badly but I knew something in the engine was amiss. I flew it to the maintenance engineer and yes there was failure. Metal segments were upsetting the prop governor and the prop pitch was hunting. I don’t recall what was failing, that was 45 years ago.About 1984 Itook my Airtractor, powered by a Pratt and Whitney radial, to Melbourne for a rebuilt engine. One could not buy a new one for they had been out of production for about 3 decades. It was still a viable engine then and today it is poweredby a turbine and so is the Fletcher I mentioned above.I had my buddy Peter Menhennit fly me to Melbourne in my Cessna. About 40 minutes into the return flight I felt surging. Yes, the same problem as I had experience inthe Fletcher.I had an ideal landing strip, being a track running through a paddock. I closed the throttle and landed. Peter was flying close by and saw this but hadn’t figured what was going on. Because it was getting dark he just kept on flying. I watched my Cessna get smaller and smaller. Then disappear. Here I was, in a paddock and it’s getting dark. I didn’t have a dime on me. (To fly to an airport and pickup a plane didn’t need money or a wallet with ID.)I got to the road. Women drivers ignored me. I couldn’t go to a pub or motel. With no money or ID I could even be seen as an escapee. Then some kindly bloke did pick me up. I had a client at home by the name of Sleigh who came from this area and his parents still lived here. (The town was Nagambie Victoria.) I had the driver drop me off there. MrsSleigh answered the door. She opened it only about an inch. However I did establish my credentials and they treated me with great hospitality. But she asked me a question. I will never forget it.“you went toMelbourne without any money?”. “who do you think you are? Royalty?”Mrs Sleigh did think I should call the police and tell them what had happened. I pointed out that would start a chain of paper work which I didn’t want. She accepted that. End of story.

Mind if I point out a few things? Henry Ford did NOT "produce the Ferguson TE20 under license". The famous "handshake agreement" resulted in the introduction of the 9N "Ford Tractor Ferguson System" (according to a little badge on the grille) in 1939. This was followed by the nearly identical 2N in 1942. Ferguson held the patents on the hydraulic three point hitch system and Ford built the tractor. Henry Ford Sr. died April 7, 1947 and his grandson dissolved the handshake agreement on June30, 1947. Henry ll took over the company in 1945 or 1946 and the TE20 did not exist until late 1946. The TE20 was the first of "the little gray Fergies". In 1948 Ford Company introduced the 8N, which was an updated 9N.

Mind if I point out a few things? Henry Ford did NOT "produce the Ferguson TE20 under license". The famous "handshake agreement" resulted in the introduction of the 9N "Ford Tractor Ferguson System" (according to a little badge on the grille) in 1939. This was followed by the nearly identical 2N in 1942. Ferguson held the patents on the hydraulic three point hitch system and Ford built the tractor. Henry Ford Sr. died April 7, 1947 and his grandson dissolved the handshake agreement on June30, 1947. Henry ll took over the company in 1945 or 1946 and the TE20 did not exist until late 1946. The TE20 was the first of "the little gray Fergies". In 1948 Ford Company introduced the 8N, which was an updated 9N.

Hi Deluxe 40.
No, I don't mind if you point out any error or errors I make. Do however look at my signature at the bottom of my writings. No, I don't know everything.
It's been some time since I saw the Ford tractor in question. At the time the differences I noted was the throttle and the grill. the Au fergie has horizontal fins and the Ford has vertical. There no doubt there are other factors I didn't spot. I looked up on the internet and the 9N is just the same as the TE20 with the exception of a few minor things. yes it was the hydraulic system that was the centre of the litigation. and Perhaps the front axil forks??
you can contradict me, it does not offend me and I can learn from it. cheers, gary